TED's Groundbreaking Hindi-Language Star Plus TV Series "TED Talks India: Nayi Soch" Reached 96M Viewers in First Season, Gets Renewed for Three More Seasons

NEW YORK, April 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TED announced today that its highly acclaimed Star Plus TV prime-time series TED Talks India: Nayi Soch, a Hindi-language TV and digital series hosted by Shah Rukh Khan which premiered last fall, has been renewed for three more seasons.

The first season, which featured speakers delivering inspiring and informative talks in TED's signature style of 18-minutes or less, drew an astounding 96 million viewers over its first season in fall 2017.

TED Talks India: Nayi Soch speakers deliver TED Talks in Hindi on topics as varied as science and social justice before a live studio audience, with professional subtitles in Hindi and in English provided for viewers at home. Almost every talk features a short Q&A between the speaker and Khan that dives deeper into the ideas shared onstage.

TED Talks India: Nayi Soch host and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan said: "I believe passionately that India is brimming with brave and brilliant ideas—and that those ideas have never mattered more. This program features India's finest storytellers in a surprising blend of entertainment, inspiration and intellectualism, and I'm more committed than ever to spreading their ideas to my country and the rest of the world."

TED's Head of Television Juliet Blake, who executive produced the series, said: "We're incredibly proud of this show's accomplishments breaking barriers to reach new audiences, and look forward to spending the next several seasons inspiring a nation to embrace ideas and curiosity."

Star TV CEO and Chairman Uday Shankar said:  "Star TV is committed to developing programming that goes beyond pure entertainment to inspire and educate our massive audience. Both the critical response and the tremendous viewer love for this series were key factors in our decision to bring Ted Talks India: Nayi Soch back for at least three more seasons."

Head of TED Chris Anderson said: "Ultimately TED's goal is to develop compelling new content formats that can make ideas available and relevant to billions of people we haven't reached yet. This journey with Star TV and Shah Rukh Khan has been one of the most exciting steps toward the goal. We love this partnership and can't wait to get working on these new series."

Here's what audiences have had to say:

• "Amidst all the ruckus of daily soaps fighting for TRPs we've finally got a TV show that's absolutely worth watching." – Neeraj Chavan (via Quora)
• "#TEDTalksIndiaNayiSoch is one of the best initiatives ever, I loved watching @TEDTalks and now that idea and platform have been brought to India I am amazed to see that how much potential India has! --@Umangkelani (via Twitter)
• "This action-packed one hour show airing on Star Plus is definitely a great way to explore revolutionary ideas from Indians." - Anuj Shikarkhane (via Quora)
• "It is clear from today's scenario of world that number of problems are way more than the problem solvers and we need crowd support to solve them. This is where TED Talks India helps. It makes people aware about the issues and ways to address it. This is the need of the hour." - Aayush Wadhwa (via Quora)
• "This show shows us that there are great undiscovered minds in our country and a [number] of unsung heroes. TED is like a light bulb in the dark field of the daily soaps which we experiencing for years." - Rishabh Nayan (via Quora)

Here's what reviewers have had to say:

• "[P]robably the best show to have premiered on Indian television, in recent times." – First Post
• "The content is great with a host of speakers discussing ideas that leave people inspired and positive." – India Today
• "The best part about the show is that you get to learn so much. It is enlightening to say the least." – Bollywood Life
• "[S]omething absolutely must for Indian audiences." – Chandigarh Metro

The TED Talks India: Nayi Soch audience stretches beyond television on TED.com/india and for TED mobile app users in India. Each episode has been conveniently broken out into individual TED Talks, one talk for each speaker on the program. Viewers can watch and share them on their own, or download them as playlists to watch one after another.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada, and at thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; A volunteer translation network that provides subtitles and interactive transcripts in more than 100 languages; the educational initiative TED-Ed; and the newly launched Audacious Project, which surfaces and funds critical ideas that have the potential to impact millions of lives.

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